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manishbit@gmail.com
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PostSun May 21, 2017 9:31 pm 
Hi All, My First post in this forum so not sure I am in the correct category, as I have asked questions on Trails and Photography. We will be travelling during this upcoming Memorial Day weekend Below is a detailed summary of our 5 day itinerary. Need help on last minute inputs for Best Landscape routes, Best Waterfalls for Photography, including Night Photography to capture the Lakes, Milky Way, Sunrise/Sunsets etc Day 1: • Sunrise - Hurricane Ridge • Midday – Which of these or others are an absolute must: Marymere Falls, Madison Falls, Crescent Lake, Sol Duc Falls, Ho Rain Forest etc….Take evening Ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, then Chuckanut Scenic Drive • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location? Any of these - Deception Pass SP, Woodstock Farm, Chuckanut etc ? Or should we do Sunset at Picture Lake and/or Artist Point on Hwy 542 ? Is Nooksack Falls good? • Night Photography – Picture Lake Day 2: • Sunrise – Picture Lake or is there any other nice location in that region ? • Midday – North Cascades NP, read that route between Diablo and Mazama is now open, Diablo, Ross Lake…then come down to Big Four Ice Caves via route 530, thenn Wallace Falls SP. Any other must see places on Hwy 2 ? Planning to take Rt 97, then 970 after Hwy 2 • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 2 – preferably with a Lake in the background, we are open for any short hikes as well • Night Photography – Any dark place near Cle Elum? Any of the lakes ? Day 3: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Cle Elum ? • Midday – Snoqualmie Falls, then then head to Mt Rainier NP. Should I go via Rt 410 (White River Entrance) or Rt 706 (Nisqually)? I am assuming Rt 165 will be closed. Does this look okay - https://goo.gl/maps/4LXfwrJ8iuw Will any of these falls be open to view: Wauhaukaupauken Falls, Spray, Narada ? • Sunset – Reflection Lake or can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 12 en route to Palouse Waterfalls • Night Photography – Palouse Waterfalls Day 4: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Colfax? Steptoe Butte or any other ? • Midday – Steptoe Butte, Palouse Scenic Byway • Sunset – Palouse Waterfalls or any other place en route to Stonhenege ? What is the most scenic route from Palouse to Stonehenge Memorial ? • Night Photography – Stonehenge Memorial Day 5: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Biggs Junction ? • Midday until 6 PM – Should we try to see Trout Lake (141) or Lost Lake (281) as a detour, before going to see the Columbia River Gorge waterfalls? Which falls are a must see ? - Thanks

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MyFootHurts
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PostSun May 21, 2017 10:13 pm 
Memorial Day weekend? You'll need to factor in a day to two for sitting in traffic and trying to find parking spots at any of those places lol.gif

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun May 21, 2017 10:44 pm 
That's a lot of driving! Lost Lake is pretty cool. Not sure that you will be able to drive all the way to the lake in a week. Trout Lake...I grew up directly south of there (White Salmon), I have no idea if there is an actual lake of that name that is worth seeing. The town of the same name is tiny. It is close to Mt. Adams so there are probably some good view points. Waterfalls in the Gorge...Multnomah is huge and the most iconic. Eagle Creek is probably the trail w/ the most bang for the buck, just walk as far as you feel like and you'll see plenty of falls as you go (I would recommend going at least as far as Punchbowl). Wahclella Falls is a short easy hike that is very worthwhile. Just east of Multnomah is Wahkeena Falls, decent view from the road or just a few minutes walk up the paved path. You can hit a bunch of close to the road stuff. Horsetail Falls is right by the road if you take the scenic highway. Latourell is a short hike. Not exactly in the Gorge, but if you are heading up towards Mt. Hood then Tamanawas Falls on the east side is a nice hike. Ramona Falls on the west side of Hood is gorgeous. Have to find a way over the Sandy River, I don't think there is a bridge anymore but probably some logs spanning it. Probably not recommended to try fording the river this early in the year.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostSun May 21, 2017 10:47 pm 
I would say Picture Lake is better for a sunset than a sunrise. That way the last rays of the sun will be lighting up Mt. Shuksan. In the morning it could be back lit. I doubt you'll be able to drive all t he way up there yet though. Too much snow.

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PostSun May 21, 2017 10:52 pm 
For the Olympic Peninsula, you'll be driving right along Crescent Lake w/ many good vantage points. Marymere and Sol Duc Falls are both fairly short and easy hikes, can probably do both. I'd say they are both worthwhile. Marymere starts from the parking lot at a Ranger Station along Crescent Lake, Sol Duc is a bit of a detour, but that's a pretty drive up that valley.

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PostSun May 21, 2017 10:53 pm 
Not sure about how this fits w/ your timing, but Lake Serene is along Hwy 2, fairly short although steep hike, fairly spectacular destination w/ Mt. Index rising immediately from the lake. A few falls along the trail and you can take a short detour to get a closer view at part of Bridal Veil Falls.

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PostMon May 22, 2017 8:51 am 
manishbit@gmail.com wrote:
Hi All, My First post in this forum so not sure I am in the correct category, as I have asked questions on Trails and Photography. We will be travelling during this upcoming Memorial Day weekend Below is a detailed summary of our 5 day itinerary. Need help on last minute inputs for Best Landscape routes, Best Waterfalls for Photography, including Night Photography to capture the Lakes, Milky Way, Sunrise/Sunsets etc Day 1: • Sunrise - Hurricane Ridge • Midday – Which of these or others are an absolute must: Marymere Falls, Madison Falls, Crescent Lake, Sol Duc Falls, Ho Rain Forest etc….Take evening Ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, then Chuckanut Scenic Drive • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location? Any of these - Deception Pass SP, Woodstock Farm, Chuckanut etc ? Or should we do Sunset at Picture Lake and/or Artist Point on Hwy 542 ? Is Nooksack Falls good? • Night Photography – Picture Lake Day 2: • Sunrise – Picture Lake or is there any other nice location in that region ? • Midday – North Cascades NP, read that route between Diablo and Mazama is now open, Diablo, Ross Lake…then come down to Big Four Ice Caves via route 530, thenn Wallace Falls SP. Any other must see places on Hwy 2 ? Planning to take Rt 97, then 970 after Hwy 2 • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 2 – preferably with a Lake in the background, we are open for any short hikes as well • Night Photography – Any dark place near Cle Elum? Any of the lakes ? Day 3: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Cle Elum ? • Midday – Snoqualmie Falls, then then head to Mt Rainier NP. Should I go via Rt 410 (White River Entrance) or Rt 706 (Nisqually)? I am assuming Rt 165 will be closed. Does this look okay - https://goo.gl/maps/4LXfwrJ8iuw Will any of these falls be open to view: Wauhaukaupauken Falls, Spray, Narada ? • Sunset – Reflection Lake or can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 12 en route to Palouse Waterfalls • Night Photography – Palouse Waterfalls Day 4: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Colfax? Steptoe Butte or any other ? • Midday – Steptoe Butte, Palouse Scenic Byway • Sunset – Palouse Waterfalls or any other place en route to Stonhenege ? What is the most scenic route from Palouse to Stonehenge Memorial ? • Night Photography – Stonehenge Memorial Day 5: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Biggs Junction ? • Midday until 6 PM – Should we try to see Trout Lake (141) or Lost Lake (281) as a detour, before going to see the Columbia River Gorge waterfalls? Which falls are a must see ? - Thanks
There are a few flies in your ointment. The first is that you are doing a whale of a lot of driving on a weekend when the roads will be plum full of folks. As was said, many locations will fill up fast for parking and almost all campgrounds will be full Friday night through Sunday night. Also, expect traffic jams. For instance, ferry waits can easily be 3-4 hours Memorial weekend. Coming back to Seattle via I-90 or 2 Sunday or Monday afternoon/evening could have 5 hour traffic jams as an example. Cut your driving back! Hurricane Ridge would be good for sunrise, but consider the ferry. It will still be largely snow-covered. Don't know the falls, but if it is sunny, waterfall images are generally not great. Much better when cloudy - check the weather. Would recommend a rain forest hike or two while there. Stevens Pass, Mt. Baker, and Sunrise will deep in snow - the roads will, if plowed and open, be clear. Picture Lake at Mt. Baker will be solid snow - 140". Sunrise is closed until June 5th. Only Paradise is open at Mt. Rainier (and the very low Carbon River entrance). Highway 20 is a beautiful drive but will be snow covered above 3800' - the summit is 5500' - 65" of snow. Winthrop is nice but will be crowded. Nice wildflowers. Find a hike or two. The loop of highway 20 to Wenatchee and back on 2 is a nice drive. Pre-arrange any lodging. Don't return to Seattle area via 2 Sunday or Monday PM. Cle Elum is nice. Yakima Canyon 821 is a nice drive, back on I-82. Flowers are good above the canyon elevation. There are numerous flower hikes in the Wenatchee/Ellensburg/Yakima part of the shrub steppe desert of Washington. I wouldn't think that east of the Columbia it will be as crowded. But haven't been to the Palouse since I was a kid.

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KekistaniProphet
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PostMon May 22, 2017 10:24 am 
When you drive on 97 and 2 please drive the speed limit. I'm so sick of you westside idiots coming over here and thinking it's cool to drive 65 mph. Please go die somewhere else.

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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostMon May 22, 2017 12:39 pm 
Hiker454 wrote:
When you drive on 97 and 2 please drive the speed limit. I'm so sick of you westside idiots coming over here and thinking it's cool to drive 65 mph. Please go die somewhere else.
Nice. You don't even know where the OP is from. And how do you know where the people are from that are speeding? Get over yourself.

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PostMon May 22, 2017 1:09 pm 
Palouse Falls will likely be crowded. The guy running the campground we stayed at said it was a zoo on weekends. This being a holiday, I would assume it would be a zoo, unless you got there early...early being 6 or 7 AM. There is a campground by the falls. I don't know if they have water available. They do have pit toilets.

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PostMon May 22, 2017 2:49 pm 
treeswarper wrote:
a zoo on weekends.
We were there last month and it was a zoo. Cars were stacked up at the entrance. They were letting a car in when another car came out.

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PostMon May 22, 2017 8:53 pm 
Wow, okay. So first of all, I really think you need to re-evaluate your itinerary here because you're biting off way more than you can chew. You've got an immense amount of driving involved as is, and the popular areas are going to be heavily trafficked. I would anticipate you'll have to wait 2-3 boats for the Ferries as well. My suggestions and tips broken down in line:
manishbit@gmail.com wrote:
Day 1: • Sunrise - Hurricane Ridge • Midday – Which of these or others are an absolute must: Marymere Falls, Madison Falls, Crescent Lake, Sol Duc Falls, Ho Rain Forest etc….Take evening Ferry from Port Townsend to Coupeville, then Chuckanut Scenic Drive • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location? Any of these - Deception Pass SP, Woodstock Farm, Chuckanut etc ? Or should we do Sunset at Picture Lake and/or Artist Point on Hwy 542 ? Is Nooksack Falls good? • Night Photography – Picture Lake
The Hoh has the most potential for photography out of the mid-day locations you mentioned, but only if it's overcast. If it's sunny you'll have a hard time finding good light anywhere. Marymere Falls might still be shaded enough, but don't count on it. Sol Duc Falls is moderately workable around mid-day in bad light. Larrabee State Park off Chuckanut has some interesting sandstone rocks along the water that could work for sunset. Nooksack Falls is nice, but is fairly limited in compositions. Also it'll be tossing up a lot of spray right now so it may be hard to get clean shots. Picture Lake is probably still going to be buried under several feet of snow and ice. Chances are you're not getting any reflections up there if that was your goal.
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Day 2: • Sunrise – Picture Lake or is there any other nice location in that region ? • Midday – North Cascades NP, read that route between Diablo and Mazama is now open, Diablo, Ross Lake…then come down to Big Four Ice Caves via route 530, thenn Wallace Falls SP. Any other must see places on Hwy 2 ? Planning to take Rt 97, then 970 after Hwy 2 • Sunset – Where can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 2 – preferably with a Lake in the background, we are open for any short hikes as well • Night Photography – Any dark place near Cle Elum? Any of the lakes ?
So if you do Picture Lake to Ross Lake then south on Highway 97 and west across Highway 2 to Wallace Falls, you're looking at 7 1/2 hours of driving alone (about 375 miles). With essentially no traffic. Then another hour to get to Big Four from Wallace Falls. You're going to have to cut something out here. You could do Picture Lake to Ross Lake, then down to Big Four reasonably in a day, but I wouldn't suggest pushing much beyond that if you actually want time to take pictures. Also all of the camping areas through there will be full.
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Day 3: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Cle Elum ? • Midday – Snoqualmie Falls, then then head to Mt Rainier NP. Should I go via Rt 410 (White River Entrance) or Rt 706 (Nisqually)? I am assuming Rt 165 will be closed. Does this look okay - https://goo.gl/maps/4LXfwrJ8iuw Will any of these falls be open to view: Wauhaukaupauken Falls, Spray, Narada ? • Sunset – Reflection Lake or can I get a nice Sunset location on Hwy 12 en route to Palouse Waterfalls • Night Photography – Palouse Waterfalls
Gold Creek Pond might work for sunrise. Easy access, but could be under snow still. For Mount Rainier, Highway 123 is open all the way through the park now, but the Stevens Canyon Road is not. If you want to get to Paradise, you'll either have to come in from the Nisqually side, or go down to Packwood, then take the Skate Creek Road up to Ashford. Wauhaukaupauken Falls is located deep in the backcountry and will not be accessible this time of year. Not sure why that would even be a consideration either, since it's not really a known entity (in fact, I don't know that anyone has ever properly photographed it). I think you're probably confusing it with another waterfall? Spray Falls is on the northwest corner of the mountain and won't be accessible from your route. Also the road is closed still. Narada Falls will be accessible, but expect some snow (and a lot of spray from the falls). Christine Falls on the Nisqually side will be fine, and Silver Falls and Falls Creek Falls on the Ohanapecosh side will be fine. Reflection Lakes will likely be totally covered in snow, if the road is even open to there. I suppose you could shoot sunset around Rimrock Lake, but there's not much interesting over there. Probably better to spend your time getting to Palouse Falls if that's a priority for you, since it's another 4 hour drive from Rainier.
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Day 4: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Colfax? Steptoe Butte or any other ? • Midday – Steptoe Butte, Palouse Scenic Byway • Sunset – Palouse Waterfalls or any other place en route to Stonhenege ? What is the most scenic route from Palouse to Stonehenge Memorial ? • Night Photography – Stonehenge Memorial Day 5: • Sunrise – Any nice location near Biggs Junction ? • Midday until 6 PM – Should we try to see Trout Lake (141) or Lost Lake (281) as a detour, before going to see the Columbia River Gorge waterfalls? Which falls are a must see ?
Steptoe Butte is the best spot that's easily identifiable in the Colfax area. Kamiak Butte is another option. Palouse Falls is better at sunrise than sunset, and Steptoe works for both, so pick your poison there. These two days are where you're going to find yourself in over your head though. The Columbia Gorge alone at this time of year is worthy of 5 days of exploring. The waterfalls are all running full right now, flowers are out (Balsam are done though), and there's tons to shoot. Crowds will be profuse on Memorial Day weekend though, so expect people everywhere. I would suggest not even bothering with Stonehenge and just going straight for the Gorge. There's no reason to go to Trout Lake or Lost Lake. If you cut out The Palouse from your itinerary you'll save yourself a ton of time too.

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PostMon May 22, 2017 8:54 pm 
Unless you have a transporter to beam you to your locations, your itinerary is not feasible in five days. Pick a couple of destinations close to each other and focus on those.

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PostThu Jun 01, 2017 11:36 am 
It would be interesting to hear what you ended up pulling off, how it went, and see some of your favorite keepers from the trip!

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PostThu Jun 01, 2017 12:37 pm 
It was amazing to say the least, and the icing on the cake was the Aurora Borealis that we were able to see on Rt 395 and capture on our cameras !!! - I will be sharing the details shortly Thanks all for your help again

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